Frederick William Sunderman, Sr, MD, PhD, ScD, was born October 23, 1898 in Juniata, a suburb of Altoona, Pa, to Heinrich Wilhelm August Sunderman, a baker, and his wife, Eliesebeth Katarina Sunderman. He was an only child nurtured by loving parents who encouraged him to study the violin at the age of 5 years.
Dr Sunderman was a Renaissance man with accomplishments as a physician, clinical scientist, toxicologist, author, editor, violinist, poet, and photographer. His education included a BS in chemistry from Gettysburg College (1919) and 3 advanced degrees from the University of Pennsylvania: MD (1923), MS in physical chemistry and research medicine (1927), and PhD in research medicine (1929). He was board certified in internal medicine (1937), pathology (1944), and clinical chemistry (1953). He was the founder and first president (1957–1959) of the Association of Clinical Scientists. He founded their journal, Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science, in 1971 and edited it until he was 100 years of age. He also organized biennial trips to Bermuda for the association's members. He was president of the America Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) (1950–1951) and was a founding fellow and member of the first Board of Governors of the College of American Pathologists (CAP). He received numerous national and international awards including the Association of Clinical Scientists Diploma of Honor (1960), CAP Pathologist of the Year (1962), and CAP/ASCP Distinguished Service Award (1988).
Scientifically, Dr Sunderman was the first to use quality control techniques and proficiency testing challenges to assess laboratory test accuracy and precision. A proficiency testing survey distributed in 1946 yielded abysmal results.1 A questionnaire sent to 95 clinical pathologists assessing the root cause for the inferior laboratory performance yielded 80 respondents who believed there were an inadequate number of trained technicians to perform the daily volume of laboratory tests. Other respondents believed that salaries for technicians were “too low to attract or hold the better type of worker.”1 Some things apparently never change.2 Dr Sunderman organized a proficiency testing service for 36 years until turning it over to the ASCP in 1986. He taught a wet workshop on hemoglobinometry sponsored by the ASCP in 1954 that attracted 120 participants.
Medically, Dr Sunderman was one of the first physicians to treat a patient in a diabetic coma with a crude preparation of insulin. He invented the Sunderman Sugar Tube for determining blood glucose concentration. During the 1930s, he directed the clinical chemistry section of the William Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. While medical director of the Manhattan Project during World War II, Dr Sunderman explored the effects of the highly toxic gas, nickel carbonyl. He developed and patented the antidote, sodium diethyldithiocarbamate, which he tested on himself as proof of its efficacy. He taught in a variety of medical schools throughout his active career including Jefferson Medical College, Emory, Temple, the University of Texas, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Clearly, Dr Sunderman embraced the concept that “life is like a chronic illness, and finding something interesting to do is a kind of long-term cure.”3 He believed in working on a regular schedule and received America's oldest worker award at the age of 100 years from Green Thumb, Inc, in cooperation with the US Department of Labor and the US Health and Human Services Administration.
He found music to be a great source of relaxation and mental stimulation. He led a dance band, Sunderman's Jazzarina, which played for dances while he attended Gettysburg College. His taste for jazz shifted to chamber music, and he described his favorite compositions in his book Musical Notes of a Physician published in 1992.4 He owned a fine collection of string instruments and bows including the 17th century long-model Stradivari originally made for the Cardinal of Codez. On February 29, 1992, Dr Sunderman played Mozart's unaccompanied G Major Duo (K423) for violin and viola with his son, F. William Sunderman, Jr, MD, at Carnegie Hall in New York.
While recovering from tuberculosis in 1938, Dr Sunderman developed an interest in photography. This interest eventually led to him being awarded a first prize at the Eastman Kodak Company's annual exhibition and the publication of a collection of his photographs entitled Painting with Light in 1993.5 He also wrote his autobiography, A Time to Remember, which was published in 1998.6 As a poet, a final thought from Dr Sunderman:
With appreciation for medical advancements in ages past,
With gratitude for scientific achievements that will last,
With faith in discoveries that the future may herald,
Lord, further our search for a disease-less world.5
Dr Sunderman's first wife, Clara Louise Baily, died in 1972. They had 3 children: F. William Sunderman, Jr, MD, also a pathologist; Louise, who died at age 3; and Joel, who died at age 24. In 1980, Dr Sunderman married Martha Lee Biscoe, who died in 2000.
Dr Sunderman died at his home in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pa, on March 9, 2003 at the age of 104. In addition to his son, he is survived by 3 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
